Interesting piece in The New York Times today discussing the decline in ad revenue for newspapers, which has swiftly gone from bad to worse.

Ad revenue, which is a pivotal form of income for most of the nation’s newspapers has steadily declined over the last few years and looks be falling this year at an even more alarming rate. This decline is revenue is obviously due in large part to online advertising, which over the last few years, has really taken off and has actually grown for newspapers by some 20-30%.

With fewer people picking up print papers and instead moving to online sites for news, the decline is certainly understandable. Couple that with a weak economy and severe housing crisis and many papers across the nation are really feeling the hit in revenue decline. But online advertising pays less while also costing less for the advertiser, which is one reason that it has gained such steam over the last few years.

It would certainly be interesting to compare the decline in print revenue with the increase in online revenue and really take a look at the bottom dollar loss that these papers are facing. The difference is obviously something that worries papers across the country but the question is whether at some point the online market can make up for the decline in print revenue. I tend to believe that is totally possible, especially for the larger media markets.

Rarely do I ever pick up a print paper anymore, unless I am traveling and can’t get immediate access to the web. I haven’t graduated to a cool new smart phone just yet, so I still rely solely on my laptop for the web and when that is not available, I will pick up a paper and take it back to the old school.